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WEEK ONE
WEEK 1
God is Listening
Opening Icebreaker
Have verses on prayer written on cards (see Leader’s Notes for suggestions). Each group member takes a card and reads out the verse. Any group member could share any experience related to that verse.
Bible Readings
• 1 Timothy 1:12–17; 2:1–8; 6:13–16 • Ephesians 3:20
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1 Timothy
Opening Our Eyes
If anyone had an excuse to be too busy to pray it was Paul. He worked tirelessly for the gospel and spent himself in evangelism and teaching, doing all he could to build up God’s Church. He experienced spectacular success, but also spectacular opposition – from enemies outside the Church, and also from within, who sought and succeeded to undermine his hard work (1:18–20). He had people to talk with, meetings to attend, letters to write, journeys to make, many challenges. It would have been understandable if he had decided to leave the responsibility of prayer to the older women in the church and just got on with ‘the business’. Many committed Christians also feel busy and are perhaps over-stretched. Solid, thoughtful prayer can get squeezed out and we grab a few moments to talk with God before the next activity or before we fall asleep at night. Then another sermon comes along that stimulates us to unearth the priority of prayer once again and we start off with great intentions. Before we know what’s happened, ‘life’ crowds in once more, and so it goes on. Yet it seems that however busy Paul was, praise and prayer permeated his life. What can we learn from him to help us get off the rollercoaster of our up and down prayer lives? Recognition of need
Paul reminds himself and his readers of what he was before Christ took hold of him – a blasphemer, persecutor, violent man, worst of sinners (1:13,16). He recognised his constant need of God’s mercy and how Christ had made it possible for him to receive that mercy. As he allowed this truth to grip his mind it inevitably led 10
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God is Listening
him to praise. He just can’t seem to get over the fact that God has been so kind to such an undeserving soul. Lift mind and heart in praise
Paul doesn’t actually exhort Timothy to praise God in this letter, but praise just pops out in his writing. As mentioned before, the source of praise is recognising all that God is and all He has done. Focusing on these truths when we come to prayer will build our faith to pray big worshipful prayers. Recognition of the enemy
Paul knew that Satan was the source of the opposition (4:1). Sometimes in church disputes it seems that our fellow Christians become the enemy, but we need to attack the true enemy behind all opposition. Use spiritual weapons
Paul taught that spiritual forces require spiritual weapons that ‘have divine power to demolish strongholds’ (2 Cor. 10:4). Ten thousand meetings and endless discussions will not defeat spiritual opposition. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the lifting of the Iron Curtain were not accomplished by crack troops with rocket launchers. People prayed and God answered. Perseverance
In the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18, Jesus urges us to always pray and not give up. The story is told of a family in North Africa who lived next door to a bakery. Day after day the machinery gave off small vibrations against their adjoining wall. There was no indication of a problem until one day the wall suddenly collapsed! We have no way of knowing what God is doing under the surface of problems before the cracks start to appear, but by faith we believe that He is in the process of ‘demolishing strongholds’.
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1 Timothy
Discussion Starters
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1.
What picture does Paul paint of Christ and of God the Father in these verses?
2.
What is Paul’s heart attitude towards God?
3.
How might he have arrived at these convictions about Christ?
4.
How did these convictions about Christ and God the Father help him in his prayer life?
5.
Why is it necessary for us to have Christ as mediator?